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May 19, 1906.
the engine room and found everything all the telegraph of the port engine was at* full astero, and that of the starboard engine full speed ahead, Witness then went up to the bridge, and the Captain told him they were in the trough of the sea, broadside on, and ¦ he wanted to get her head round and run before it. They tried to run under those conditions urtil 5.30 a.m., but could not get any weigh on the ship. All the time her list to port was increasing, until finally they could not work the starboard engine, as the injection was out of water, and they could not get any water through the condenser. Witness then went and reported to the Captain that they could not do any more in the engine-room, and sent all the men on deck. The list to port then gradually increased until the vessel turned over at alont 5.45 a.m. Just previous to the vessel turning over, the boatswain launched the life boat witness did not see it launched, and did not know it was launched at the time. ́ ́All the Europeans were on the bridge when the vessel took her final list. They were fully dressed, but did not have any lifebelts. He saw some of the Chinese with belts on, but was unable to get any. They all endeavoured to get one for Mrs. Bervice. There was supposed to be one in his cabin, but he could not get into it. When the ship was level with the water witness jumped off the side, After a few minutes in the water he was picked up by the lifeboat. By the time be was able to look round they were some distance from the ship, and it was useless trying to get back on account of the heavy ses. They wished to get back with the obj-ot of picking up any survivors. They landed at Breaker Point be tween 12.30 and 1 p.m., and the Consul at Swator took them in charge. Besides witness, there were eleven Chinese în the lifeboat. Two other men were picked up by a German steamer ; they escaped from the ship on a light raft; one was the second engineer and the other a fire. man, who arrived in Hongkong by the 8.8. Haimun six days after the Chukong founder d. By the President-From the time you turned in till the time you turned out again at 5 a.m.. who was in charge of the engine room?-The second engineer from eight till twelve, the third engineer from twelve till four; then I should have been called, but I think the third called the second instead. I asked the second why I wasn't called and he said he forgot, or something like that.
With regard to the pumping arrangements, were these all right?--I consider they were satisfactory.
When you went down to the engine-room at five o'clock, was there any water there ?-No. There was none below the 'tween docks. Be- tween 5 and 5.30 a.m. the captais informed mo that there was only three inches of water in the main hold.
Did you observe this water on the 'tween decks P—I did later on, because it came into the engine-room.
When you went to look at the 'tween decks, what did you see?--I noticed water coming into the engine-room, and through the port bunker into the stokehole.
The water entered the
engine-room through the door from the main deck, which I closed.
1.
Continuing, witness said he went and looked at the main deck, on which there was from three to four feet of Water. The chief officer had informed the Captain of this fact Witness knew of no means by which this water could be free from the deck. There were cargo ports on the vessel about five feet square, but he did not know how they were secured. There were two hatchways on the deck; oue forward and one aft. The ship's cargo consisted of 1,217 bags of rice, and there was about 25 tons of oval in the after hold. He did not see the cargo in the hold, "but did not think it would shift with the heavy list of the vessel. The water may have got on the main deck through something going wrong with the ports. Had the vessel been on an even keel, it could have been run out through the Bonppers,
By Captain Dawson The speed of the engines was altered during the time witness was in the engine-room. He noticed the crow trying to get an awning up to bring the vessel's hose round. When the Lhukong was loaded, her souppers would be three or four feet above the water.
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
By Captain Lake—The vessel did not appear | carried—fourteen of the crew to be shipping heavy ses". No oil bags were used on the water,
Kam Wing, carpenter of the Chukong, said it was his duty to see that the hatchways and ports were properly closed when the vessel went to sea. There were two ports on each side of ¦ the ship, which were secured by iron covers. The water got on to the main deck through these covers not being closed properly. He did not tell anybody bafore the steamer left that he was unable to close them. Witness did not see any water coming through the parts; be thought it got on the deck throngh the ash shoots, which were not secured at all, as he could not find any covers for them. In securing the ports witness did not use any white lead or fallow to make them fit properly. He had been carpen. ter of a ship for about eight months prior to his appointment on the Chukong.
Alter tiff the boatswain of the Chukong was called. Kam Yak stated that he was on deck about half an hour before the ship went down. On the evening before the wreck, when he went to bed there was a light wind blowing when he awoke at five o'clock on the following morning the wind was blowing strongly, and the sea was rough. When be appeared on deok in the morning he got the sampans (lifeboats) ready, as he saw there was danger. When the vessel took a list to port, one of the lifeboats floated in the water, while one was broken. He put the plugs in the lifeboats when he got them ready. On the night before the wreck, witness furled the ship's awning. When the vessel was foundering he was told by the Chief Officer to spread out an awning on the starboard side.
By Captain Dawson-When witness appeared on deck at five o'clock in the morning, the ship was only heeling over a little.
By Captain Lake-He did not know the ship's draft when she left Hongkong.
By the resident-There was water ou the lower deck when he went on the upper deck in the morning. This water got in through tho ash shoots, which were not secured. Witness told the crew to remove the water with buckets, The secretary of the Wing On Steamship Co. sid the Chukổng was bought a few years ago to run between the West River and Hongkong. When she left Hongkong for Amoy on her last trip she was chartered for six mouths to run between Amoy and Chinebiu. Only the captain and the second engineer had been in the ship before the femainder of the crew were all new hands. The vessel was insured with the Union Commercial Insurance Co. for 86 4,0 0 a for days b fre she left on the voyage. The cargo was also insured for $7,50, the insurance taken out being an ordinary risk.
By Lion'. McCallum -The Cap'ain of the Chukong attended to the special fitings of the ressel for the voyage to Amoy.
Chow Tim, second engineer of the Chukong, said he had been in that vessel for 22 months. The ashi shoot on the starboard side of the main deck was moveable, but the one on the port side was a fixture, and there was no proper cover for it to prevent the water entering the deck.
The President read the finding of the Cour! which was that the British ship Chukong official number 109,865, of Hongkong, of which William Bright was master, the number of whose certifi. cate was 022,629, left Hongkong about 6.30 p.m. on April 20th, bound for Amoy. She carried a crew of 26 all told, 40 tous of bunker coal sod a cargo of 150 tons of rice. The Chukong was a steel vessel of 286 register tonnage. he was built in 1899 at Nagasaki, Japan, and had two decks and four balkheads. Her engines were invected triple expansion, two in number, and she had oue steel boiler. It appeared from the evidence before this Court that the Chukong when off Swatow on the evening of April 27th experi- enced a strong north-easte ly monsoon, with a rising ses, which necessitated at about 8.30 p.m. the slowing down of the engines. The force of the wind and sea increased to such an extent that by 5 a.m. on the following morning the amount of water shipped caused a considerable list to port. As this list increased, the starboard propeller raced to such an extent that it was prac- tically useless, and the port propeller not having sufficient power to control ber movements, the versel became unmanageable, and at about 5.45 am. on April 28th foundered. The only boat able to be used was one on the port quarter, and by its means and that of a raft--one of four
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nose with the exception of the Chief Engine Mr. Butter. After one-fully considering th evidence the Court finds dimonity in forming än opinion as to the exact cause of the onenalty; but it appears fairly conclusive that water found Ita way between decka, due to insuficient protec- tion from the heavy beám sous experienced, and that this fact combined with a possible shifting of the cargo, affected the ship's stability would account for her loss.
GOVERNMENT LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
The report of the medical offloer in charge of the Government Lunatic Asylums states in
The admissions during the your numbered 160-118 being males and 42 females. This number is very slightly below that of the previous year—166, and practically the number has been constant for the past three years.
The following are the admissions for the past years:-
7
1899 1900 .. 1901
1902 1903
1904 *** 190)
78 ...109 *
20·
...120.
...155 ... 166. ...180 The total number of cases under treatment during the year amounted to 177, of whom 148 were discharged on recovery or repatriated, and 7 died, leaving a total of 22 onses under treatment on the last day of the year.
Owing to the system of repatriation in foros it is extremely difficult to calculate the recovery- rate in figures, as we unfortunately are unable to keep the native patients under observation for any length of time. It is, however, as well as one can make out, somewhat low.
NATURE OF DISEASES.
These were of the usual nature. The more acute diseases, namely, those which usually give greater hopes of recovery, such as acute mania and acute melancholia are few in number. The cases of acute mania, with the exception" of one singularly enough, occurred among the Chinese, whose mentality is squilibrated on a very stable and stolid basis. This variety of mental disease is generally caused by, or at any rate, accom- panies the rush and turmoil of existence when the senses have to be keen and the emotions are highly strung and the intellectuality is shar- pened. Evidence of this is seen in the admission re urns of the mental institutions in Western With the well-known mental countries. characteristics of the average Chinese, however, especially their strong will-power and self- control, we do not expect these soute mental » disorders. Rather, they drift, when the mind becomes aff-cted and unhinged, into chronic conditions of alienation, such as chronic mania and melancholis and dementia —such states me seem scarcely ever to readjust themselves or even to approach the normal.
Ca968
Fourteen
were admitted suffering from defusional insanity, a condition, that is to say, where the patient retains strong active and fixed delusions bat is free from manifests. tions of mania or melancholia. Sometimes, as in one case here, this may pass into a condition of acute delirious manis, but on the other hand, and perhaps more usually, it terminates in a condition of dementia.
Cases of alcoholic insanity bulk largely among the admissions; these I will refer to in the next paragraph.
On reference to table quoted it will be seen that 33 males and I finiale were admitted suffer- ing from alcoholism, that is, from the dimet result of the abuse of aloɔhol-a pérganteg of 28 among the males on the numb of mental cases admitted. Apart from thes cases I was able to trace clearly, in man of the cases of chronic manis, melancholia and delusional insanity among the woman na well as among the men, the effect of alcohol
causative factor. Altogether the miense and abuse of alcohol may be considered the principa), and perhaps the leading, factor in the production of mental derangements, especially among outlanders in this Colony. The type of diseas produced varies from esses of delirium trov too severe to be At for treatment in the war of a general hospital to typical cases of alcoho inmalty. It will be noticed that England,
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